The annual Day of Remembrance marks the date, seventy-five years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, the authorization leading to the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans of the American West Coast in concentration camps during World War II, without due process of law. How does a society come to allow the mass incarceration of its own people? This question is as urgent today as it was in the past.

This year’s program will be a panel discussion of conditions that exist in a society that enable governments to order and execute mass incarcerations such as those inflicted on Jews in Europe and Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II. Presenting these histories and their social backgrounds for comparison are Dee Simon, the Baral Family Executive Director of the Holocaust Center for Humanity, and Dr. Tetsuden Kashima, Professor Emeritus of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington. Presenting a comparison between historical cases and potential for mass incarcerations in contemporary society is Professor Lorraine Bannai of Seattle University.

“How Could Concentration Camps Happen” is also the first in a series of three events planned by a coalition of the Holocaust Center for Humanity, the Nisei Veterans Committee, the Consulate General of Japan, and the Department of American Ethnic Studies of the University of Washington. Co-sponsoring the Day of Remembrance program is the Seattle Japanese American Citizens League. The two later events will be on Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara, who enabled Jews to escape from Nazi persecution (program on 9 April at Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church, co-sponsor of this event, at 2:00); and on the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, who in April 1945 helped to liberate Dachau (program on 30 April, at the Nisei Veterans Committee).

Recognizing that February 2017 is the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, the Day of Remembrance program on 18 February will be followed by a 3:30 p.m. reception in the Walker-Ames Room of Kane Hall. The program and reception as well as the events of the series are free and open to the public.